High wind and hoop house

ginger5588February 26, 2010

I live in a very windy area in Northern California.

We have sustained winds of 30 mph with gusts up to 50 mph. I'm dying to put up a hoop house made out of bent pipe, but I'm pretty sure I need to cover it with fiberglass panels because that little 6mil plastic would last about a minute around here. Has anyone had any luck building a structure like this?

Yes, I have had my PVC pipe hoop buildings take winds up to 70 mph and 3 days of sustained 40 mph winds. You will be amazed at the strength of greenhouse plastic. If the wind died down then you could place the plastic. Just overbuild it. Extra purlins, longer ground stakes, cover with rope to stop the billowing of the plastic and you can make it work.

My wooden frame bow-top greenhouse just went through a bit of wind. Gusts went to maybe 65 mph. But I don't know beyond the forecast because I don't have a wind gauge and slept through the worst of it. Anyway, it's 6 mil greenhouse film over a frame 4' on center, and it did fine. I'd worry more about the pipe frame getting bent up.

We live in a high wind area too and have 5 bent-pipe, plastic covered houses. None have really been affected by the wind. The g/h plastic is REALLY tough. Snow however, is another matter; we lost one over the winter but it probably was our fault in the long run.

If you're looking for a small, economical hoop house, check out the following link. Four of our frames plus another [uncovered] came from them. And he stands by his product. When we called him and told him what happened with the snow he sent us replacement pipe for a VERY reasonable amount.

Thank you all!! Another question regarding the wind and the survivability of a greenhouse covered with 6 mil:
In the summer the wind is from the NORTH and in the winter it's from the SOUTH. I'm thinking that the greenhouse should bear the brunt of the wind on the ENDS as opposed to the sides
where there is more surface area.

Unless you are going to taper the ends instead of having them perpendicular to the ground, you will have more pressure on the ends, which will translate throughout the structure if braces are present. You want the sloped-angled part of the structure to take prevailing winds to deflect the force.

Ginger, I have a hoop house. In a recent storm the frame disassembled itself. I had to go back through it and insert 1/2" pvc pipe into the 3/4" X pieces to reinforce that junction.

The placement of my hoop house is not ideal and I will be placing the next one where there is better protection from winds from the SW and NW. It's a tradeoff between getting enough light and getting protection from the wind.

But I will eventually use some leftover pieces of glass to make a more permanent, if eclectic, glass greenhouse.

I am so happy this topic came up when I searched High wind greenhouse ! I live in Southern CA and the santa ana winds are fierce. I was afraid any type of hoop house would just blow away.

Or winds are usually east west , My house faces south so my backyard is facing north. To make sure I do this right. Its best to set greenhouse doors north or south also ? I have almost 1 acre lot and have nothing in yard atm. I have a clear canvas :)